This book introduces the concept of 'knowledge alchemy' to capture the generic process of transforming mundane practices and policies of governance into competitive ones following imagined global gold standards. Using examples from North America, Europe and Asia, it explores how knowledge alchemy increasingly informs national and institutional policies and practices on economic performance, higher education, research and innovation. The book examines how governments around the world have embraced global models of world-class university, human capital and talent competition as essential in ensuring national competitiveness. Through its analysis, the book shows how this strongly future-oriented and anticipatory knowledge governance is steered by a surge of global classifications, rankings and indicators, resulting in numerous comparisons of various domains that today form more constraining global policy scripts.

Public Administration: Research Strategies, Concepts, and Methods explores how scholars of public administration and institutional politics can improve their analysis by focusing on the contextual particularities of their research problems and considering the use of multiple theories and methods. The book functions as an introduction to central themes of public administration and related traditions of research, but also proposes a new pluralist approach for studying public institutions.

Public Administration: Research Strategies, Concepts, and Methods explores how scholars of public administration and institutional politics can improve their analysis by focusing on the contextual particularities of their research problems and considering the use of multiple theories and methods. The book functions as an introduction to central themes of public administration and related traditions of research, but also proposes a new pluralist approach for studying public institutions.

Higher education and innovation policies are today seen as central elements in national economic competitiveness, increasingly measured by global rankings. The book analyses the evolution of indicator-based global knowledge governance, where various national attributes have been evaluated under international comparative assessment. Reflecting this general trend, the Shanghai ranking, first published in 2003, has pressured governments and universities all over the world to improve their performance in global competition. More recently, as global rankings have met criticism for their methodology and scope, measurements of various sizes and shapes have proliferated: some celebrating novel methodological solutions, others breaking new conceptual grounds. This book takes a fresh look at developments in the field of knowledge governance by showing how emerging indicators, innovation indexes and subnational comparisons are woven into the existing fabric of measurements that govern our ideas of higher education, innovation and competitiveness. This book argues that while rankings are becoming more numerous and fragmented, the new knowledge products, nevertheless, tend to reproduce ideas and practices existing in the field of global measurement.

Higher education and innovation policies are today seen as central elements in national economic competitiveness, increasingly measured by global rankings. The book analyses the evolution of indicator-based global knowledge governance, where various national attributes have been evaluated under international comparative assessment. Reflecting this general trend, the Shanghai ranking, first published in 2003, has pressured governments and universities all over the world to improve their performance in global competition. More recently, as global rankings have met criticism for their methodology and scope, measurements of various sizes and shapes have proliferated: some celebrating novel methodological solutions, others breaking new conceptual grounds. This book takes a fresh look at developments in the field of knowledge governance by showing how emerging indicators, innovation indexes and subnational comparisons are woven into the existing fabric of measurements that govern our ideas of higher education, innovation and competitiveness. This book argues that while rankings are becoming more numerous and fragmented, the new knowledge products, nevertheless, tend to reproduce ideas and practices existing in the field of global measurement.

This book explores the ombudsman as a global institution. It has spread all over the world and its institutional development is increasingly being governed transnationally. Initially an institution of administrative law, the ombudsman has become a human rights institution and institution of good governance. These ideational shifts have influenced the global diffusion of the ombudsman but also the way in which this institution of accountability functions. The ombudsman is a peculiar institution of public accountability - both an institution and individual - that observes changes in the general political climate and engages in renegotiations of its intra-institutional position. The global models associated with the ombudsman are a source of organizational ideas, legitimacy, and sense of orientation, but they treat institutional actors differently, working also as mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. The book tracks the global diffusion and institutional evolution of the ombudsman. Its chapters on institutional cases further explore the joint institutional history of the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Chancellor of Justice in Finland, and the European Ombudsman.

This book explores the ombudsman as a global institution. It has spread all over the world and its institutional development is increasingly being governed transnationally. Initially an institution of administrative law, the ombudsman has become a human rights institution and institution of good governance. These ideational shifts have influenced the global diffusion of the ombudsman but also the way in which this institution of accountability functions. The ombudsman is a peculiar institution of public accountability - both an institution and individual - that observes changes in the general political climate and engages in renegotiations of its intra-institutional position. The global models associated with the ombudsman are a source of organizational ideas, legitimacy, and sense of orientation, but they treat institutional actors differently, working also as mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. The book tracks the global diffusion and institutional evolution of the ombudsman. Its chapters on institutional cases further explore the joint institutional history of the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Chancellor of Justice in Finland, and the European Ombudsman.

This book examines the political and legal challenges of regional governance of the 28 countries of the European Union and the 48 in the Council of Europe. The contributions, dilemmas, and moral hazards from this record of nearly seven decades of regional inter-governmental institutions has kept the peace, but produced episodes of crisis from overstretching jurisdictions, thematically and geographically. Polarization between nationalist and integrative forces has displaced the idealistic aspirations of prior decades to build the rule of law and deter violence. Academics and policy makers will learn from the various legal and political efforts to integrate supranational and inter-governmental agencies with national political systems.

This book examines the political and legal challenges of regional governance of the 28 countries of the European Union and the 48 in the Council of Europe. The contributions, dilemmas, and moral hazards from this record of nearly seven decades of regional inter-governmental institutions has kept the peace, but produced episodes of crisis from overstretching jurisdictions, thematically and geographically. Polarization between nationalist and integrative forces has displaced the idealistic aspirations of prior decades to build the rule of law and deter violence. Academics and policy makers will learn from the various legal and political efforts to integrate supranational and inter-governmental agencies with national political systems.